of course i'm late chiming in because i missed the entire game until yesterday when i finally watched the entire "replay" on espn plus. but hey, let me throw some numbers at ya'll and ya'll tell me if these numbers justify benching your starting qb after the first 3 or 4 games of the season.
game 1 => 12-34-1 (35% passing, 111 yards, 1 int)
game 2 => 10-20 (50% passing, 94 yards)
game 3 => 14-24-1 (58% passing, 125 yards, 1 int)
game 4 => 5-16-2 (31% passing, 56 yards, "2" int's)
now, does those numbers look familiar? would you "bench" your starting qb if he had those numbers? heck, would you bench carter if he had those numbers?
well, if you answered "yes" to those 3 questions, then you would've "benched" raynard last season after his first 4 games. by comparison,
thru raynard's first 3 games last year, raynard completed 46% of his passes for a "total" of 330 yards and "2" int's. carter's first 3 games this season he completed 49% of his passes for a "total" of 479 yards and "zero" int's.
so "statistically", carter's first 3 games he "out performed" raynard's first 3 games of last year. carter completed a "higher percentage" passing (49% to 46%), carter passed for more yards (479 yards to 330 yards), and carter passed for "fewer" int's ("zero" int's to raynard's "2" int's) after "3" games.
but raynard's stats got even "worse" thru 4 games. raynard was 5-16-2 (31% passing, 56 yards, "2" int's) against morgan state last year, a game that we "loss".
now, how many of ya'll called for raynard's head last year after 4 games? how many of ya'll posted a thread entitled "its time for a qb change" after 3 or 4 games last year? mind you, by game 4 raynard had "4" int's (carter still has "zero" this year and only "1" in his entire aggie career) and raynard's overall passing percentage was "43%". yet, i don't recall any threads like this one being posted last year. matter fact, i don't even recall anybody calling for raynard to be "benched", much less post a thread like this one.
now, that being stated, i do not think carter had a great game against charleston southern. but it wasn't nearly as bad as some of ya'll make it out to be. yes, carter was only 1 completion under 50% passing. however, i know i witnessed at least 3 "drops" and 2 "out of bounds" catches that would've easily gave carter an above 50% completion game.
i also noticed that carter had maybe 3 really poor throws no where near the target. but i also noticed he was under heavy "pressure" when he made those throws, so he "hurried" his throws on those plays. that's why defensively "hurries" are important.
additionally, i saw just as many "drops" as i did poor throws in that game. so you can't put all of that on the qb. if the ball hits you in "both hands", then you're supposed to "catch" the doggone ball. also, charleston southern's db's broke up a couple of "accurate" passes.
so did carter have a great game? no, he didn't. but did he have a "horrible" game as someone stated? absolutely not. had we not beat ecu last year (a game that carter won for us, mind you), we'd have the exact same record at this point in the season as last year. matter fact, if we beat dsu next game, we'd have the exact same record after 4 games as last year.
so why is everybody "panicking"? i told some of ya'll days before the game not to "sleep on charleston southern". i stated that i saw some things in their game against south carolina that "concerned" me and indeed it turned out that their passing game made us pay. i think coach washington hit the nail on the head, we came out "flat as a pancake" while charleston southern came out "fired up" as a mugg. charleston was on the sideline literally "partying" after every big play they made. very "reminiscent" of last year's game when we were "flat" against morgan state which we "loss".
so i think the whole team and the "coaches" could've performed better. the blame shouldn't be placed on one individual player. the good news is that we won the game unlike the morgan state game last year. and again, a lot of ya'll keep forgetting that we had to replace "14" starters this year unlike last year. yet, we're currently on pace to match our exact same record after 4 games this year if we beat dsu.
so again i ask, why is everybody "panicking"? i'll tell ya why ya'll are "panicking", because ya'll took charleston southern "lightly" only because of their last year's record. charleston has a brand new head coach this year. did it ever dawn on some of ya'll that charleston southern just might be a better team this year?